Syeda Mazhar
The Mumbai attacks which took place from November 26 – November 29 2008, were a series of attacks that brought the relations between India and Pakistan to its lowest ebb. Along with the usual blame game, India bashed Pakistan and its security forces in the International community. Theoretically, the execution of these attacks was not an easy deed. To pull off an attack of this magnitude, this requires months of training, planning and on-site reconnaissance. Till this date, it remains a mystery whether the real reason behind the attacks was inefficiency of the Indian forces or they were only blaming Pakistan to save their face in the international community for their lack of security.
One of the most intriguing aspects of the attack is how the teams entered Mumbai. Indian official reports indicate that most if not all, attackers entered Mumbai via sea. Which, to be noted, is the major Naval port and dockyard of their warships. The level of security can safely be assumed to be one of the highest. Yet somehow it was breached without the help of any insider. Or rather is it safe to assume that the attacks were staged to weaken Pakistan’s image in the International community?
After the incident, as expected, the Indian media and most of the international media began to create a hue and cry over how Pakistan was funding terrorist organizations in Kashmir and KPK through its intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). This rhetoric was hugely accepted by the international community due to the constant wailing of the Indian government and agencies to induce and promote an anti-Pakistan feeling into the people. However, none of the entities accusing Pakistan were able to provide any substantial proof to support their claim.
The International media and the Indian media, while pointing fingers, chose not to acknowledge several facts. At the time of the attacks, ISI was working closely with America’s intelligence agency, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), to eliminate terrorists from the province of NWFP, during the time of the attack, Pakistan Army was performing well in anti-terrorist missions and the US Government provided a positive feedback. If the ISI had been funding and/or planning any terrorist attacks on India, the CIA would be aware of them.
Moreover, the Pakistan Army has been taking steps to bring down terrorism since 2001. On 23rd March 2002, it captured Zayn al-Abidn Muhammed Hasayn Abu Zubaydah, who was an operations chief responsible for running Al-Qaeda training camps.
On 1 March 2003, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who was directly, involved in the September 11 attacks, and the killer of Wall Street Journal reporter, Daniel Pearl, was arrested by CIA-led raids in the suburbs of Rawalpindi. The Pak Army performed the task of finding out his position from previously captured suspects after he had previously escaped.
It is absurd to say that Pakistan, which was at the time allocating much of its finance and resource to eliminate terrorists and terrorist havens from Pakistan, would simultaneously be allocating even more of its resources to supply the terrorists in order for them to carry out their strikes.
It has also, sadly, gone unnoticed that the Pakistan government, which had promised to investigate the attack and bring all the accomplices to justice, has been trying hard to fulfill that promise, and those investigations have been being held for 8 years. By contrast, India was recently asked by the Foreign Ministry of Pakistan to send the 24 witnesses of the Mumbai incident to Pakistan, so that they can testify in Pakistani court. India has not responded to these letters, which is delaying the trial and the decision of the anti-terrorism court which India had previously urged Pakistan to complete as soon as possible.
“We are still waiting India’s response on the matter. The Foreign Ministry had written to India several months ago and even sent reminders but the Indian government has not responded to us,” a prosecution official told Islamabad Anti-Terrorism Court.
The constant delay in investigation from Indian side blaringly indicates how India is trying to keep Pakistan incriminated for backing the Mumbai attacks. It is noticing that as Pakistan draws closer to the climax of its trials and investigations, Pakistan would purge itself of the accusations being held against it, which would clearly go against India’s national interests.
This can further be proven by India’s latest debacle in the diplomatic game. On November 2, 2016, Pakistan took in custody 8 Indian spies which had been masquerading as official diplomats. The aim of these spies was surely to exacerbate and heighten tensions between Pakistan and India, which have been simmering after the recent Uri attack incident. Official documents viewed by press organizations reveal that one of them was tasked with the mission to disrupt the ongoing plans of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, exploit local sectarian rifts to create social tensions and co-ordinate with the splinter groups of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Revealing the true face of India, and bringing out in the open its true intentions it also shows that India’s main objective is to destabilize Pakistan, both, from the inside and its external diplomatic relations.
While India had been sending spies into Pakistan to bargain and negotiate with TTP, the Pakistan Army had been taking steps eliminate terrorists which had found haven in the Northern areas. Zarb-e-Azb, a project launched against militant groups such as TTP, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, al-Qaeda, Jundallah and the Haqqani network, has yield great results. Pakistan Army had been pushing against terrorist forces with great determination, eventually flushing out terrorists from the entire region of North Waziristan. Security situation has thus improved across Pakistan, and is now lowest than it has been since 2008.
This raises the question that how can India, a country secretly bargaining with terrorist groups like the TTP which the Pakistani government has outlawed, and is pushing to create social tensions between sectarian groups in Pakistan, can be trusted to judge who was behind the Mumbai attacks? Pakistan has since made efforts to mend relations with India in attempts to avoid war, but India is unresponsive, and behaves like a spoilt child. It is now delaying the trials which are being held by the anti-terrorism court of Pakistan, so as to prolong Pakistan’s diplomatic stability in the matter.
